Internet Explorer 9 release candidate notches up two million downloads in first week

Microsoft says it has been 'humbled by this early response'

The release candidate of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 web browser has been downloaded two million times in its first week of release.

Roger Capriotti, director of Internet Explorer product marketing, wrote in a blog that Microsoft "continues to be humbled by the enthusiasm and uptake of IE9" and that it is "encouraged by this early response".

IE 9 has so far generated pretty positive comments from reviewers and users, but according to Computing's reviews editor, Dave Bailey, there are residual performance concerns when compared with Google's Chrome and Opera. Check out Dave's review of IE9 here.

Quocirca analyst Bob Tarzey argues that the number of downloads is not surprising given that organisations will need to prepare for the mass market release of the product.

"Companies that need to be prepared include application software vendors, security software vendors, web developers and so on. All of them need to be well versed on this software," said Tarzey.